‘It’s over’ – Lewis Hamilton Ferrari documents trigger ‘useless’ Sebastian Vettel comparison
Lewis Hamilton was tested over the course of his first season with Ferrari
Maurizio Arrivabene, the former Ferrari team principal, believes Lewis Hamilton’s documents are a sign that his relationship with the team is already “over.”
And he has drawn an unflattering comparison between Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, describing Vettel’s own attempts to offer the team guidance as “almost useless.”
Lewis Hamilton compared to Sebastian Vettel over ‘useless’ Ferrari documents
Hamilton endured a disastrous first season with Ferrari in F1 2025 following his high-profile move from Mercedes, failing to register a podium finish across a season for the first time in his career.
The seven-time world champion, who will turn 41 next month, struggled to match the pace of teammate Charles Leclerc and finished a massive 86 points behind his teammate in the drivers’ standings.
Speaking at the Belgian Grand Prix in July, Hamilton revealed that he has been taking a hands-on role in an effort to turn around his situation at Ferrari.
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He told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets in the pre-event FIA press conference that he has submitted a number of “documents” to Ferrari, proposing a series of changes to the car and the team, including communication between different departments and the execution of race weekends.
Hamilton explained that he sent a first document to the team after the first few races of the season, with two more arriving in the three-week break between the British and Belgian grands prix.
As reported at the time by PlanetF1.com, Hamilton is believed to have sent a fourth dossier following the Singapore Grand Prix in early October.
It is unclear if Hamilton sent further files across his first season at Maranello.
Hamilton added that his willingness to take a lead role at Ferrari is driven by his “refusal” to follow in the footsteps of Vettel and Fernando Alonso, multiple world champions who failed to win the title with Ferrari.
However, Arrivabene – who spent four years as Ferrari team principal between 2015 and 2018 – believes Hamilton has fallen into the same trap as Vettel by trying to broaden his influence.
He told Sky Italy: “Sebastian Vettel also sent such dossiers. He wrote, spoke and shared everything.”
On the value of Vettel’s documents to the team, he added: “Almost useless.
“I don’t want to say anything bad about Sebastian, but everyone should mind their own business.
“When a driver starts playing engineer, that’s it. Then it’s really over.
“Drivers spend two or three days in the simulator and get a general impression, but the devil is in the details.
“When the car is on the track, the driver must provide relevant feedback so that the engineers can make targeted improvements – especially when there is potential.”
Arrivabene famously rebuked Vettel towards the end of Ferrari’s winless 2016 season, publicly reminding the four-time world champion to focus on his own job.
He said at the time: “Sebastian just needs to focus on the car.
“He is a person who gives so much and this means he is interested in a bit of everything, so sometimes you have to re-focus him, remind him to be focused on the main job.”
Arrivabene’s comments were recently echoed by John Elkann, the Ferrari president, who last month urged Hamilton and Leclerc to “focus on driving” and “talk less” following a disastrous weekend in Brazil.
Hamilton is known to have approached Vettel for advice before joining Ferrari from Mercedes at the start of 2025.
As reported at the time by PlanetF1.com, Hamilton contacted Vettel during the 2024 season after it emerged that Riccardo Adami – previously the voice in the ear of Vettel and Carlos Sainz – would be his race engineer in 2025.
Hamilton is also believed to have had several phone calls with Vettel before officially linking up with Ferrari last winter.
The veteran was then seen making handwritten notes in between runs during pre-season testing, suggesting the influence of Vettel – who has kept several notebooks from his own F1 career – had rubbed off on him.
In a recent appearance on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Vettel conceded that Hamilton needs “a lot of things to come together” for his stint at Ferrari to prove a success.
He said: “The longer it takes, the harder it becomes.
“He has the incredible ability to reflect the situation he’s in now, struggles he might have, and I think he’s still in a point of his life where this is what he wants to do.
“I think he has a fair shot from his performance, but a lot of things need to come together.
“You need to have the team, you need to have the people, you need the timing to be on the sweet spot.
So it would be great [if he wins at Ferrari] – and I think he deserves if it comes together – but we will find out.”
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